President Barack Obama on Thursday reaffirmed his 2008 campaign promise to close the military-run prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where terror suspects have been held since 2002, and begin the transfer of some prisoners to other countries. A look the facility's history:]]>Thu, 23 May 2013 22:01:25 -0400http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/edgitmo30/edgitmo30http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/edgitmo30/edgitmo30Although he took his time about it, President Barack Obama pledged at his news conference Tuesday to again take up the issue of closing the Guantanamo Bay prison, an idea that may have made some sense when the prison opened in January 2002, but is a glaring failure now. - Obama campaigned in 2007 and 2008 on a promise to close the controversial prison. But Congress, for reasons of demagoguery rather than any genuine concern for security, blocked each attempt to bring the inmates to the mainland for trial and incarcerate them in an unused Illinois prison.]]>Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:40:17 -0400